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Upgrading a Dell C521
Big Classy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My 360 died and I'm not going to bother buying yet another one only to have it die on me again. PS3's are too expensive and the Wii is just not my thing. So PC it is then!
Trouble is I have a Dell C521. It's this thing here
It's a pretty small computer and given that it's Dell, I can't simply take out the innards and put them in a regular size case. So I gotta make do with this. Upgrading is the only option I have.
My specs are;
Socket AM2 (940) I think that's the motherboard right?
AMD Athlon X64 4200+ 2.2 GHz
3GB RAM DDR2
Radeon X1300PRO 256mb Low profile
280W PSU
150gb hdd
Windows 7
Not sure if that's all the info needed but whatever. You can probably tell I'm new to this. Figured GPU needs going. Someone suggested a 9600gt and the internet suggests that it will run on a 280w stock dell PSU. Ultimately I want to spend under £150 which isn't alot in terms of PC gaming. £200 would be stretching it but I'd be willing to sell of a few more things to get there. Any help would be appreciated guys.
Trouble is I have a Dell C521. It's this thing here
It's a pretty small computer and given that it's Dell, I can't simply take out the innards and put them in a regular size case. So I gotta make do with this. Upgrading is the only option I have.
My specs are;
Socket AM2 (940) I think that's the motherboard right?
AMD Athlon X64 4200+ 2.2 GHz
3GB RAM DDR2
Radeon X1300PRO 256mb Low profile
280W PSU
150gb hdd
Windows 7
Not sure if that's all the info needed but whatever. You can probably tell I'm new to this. Figured GPU needs going. Someone suggested a 9600gt and the internet suggests that it will run on a 280w stock dell PSU. Ultimately I want to spend under £150 which isn't alot in terms of PC gaming. £200 would be stretching it but I'd be willing to sell of a few more things to get there. Any help would be appreciated guys.
Big Classy on
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edit: it looks like the 5730 is actually a mobile graphics card? ignore me.
Can you tell us what's the resolution of your monitor. That will help knowing exactly how much GPU power you're going to need.
[edit] It seems that your options are the 9600 GT or an ATI 5570. The 9600GT is a pretty old card but is actually a bit more powerful than the ATI. The ATI uses less power and can do DX11 but I somehow doubt that it has the horsepower to do it properly.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Ultimately, it needs to be DX10 compatible for the new Just Cause 2 game.
[edit]
I guess 940 is a server socket so I'm just being dumb. It seems that in theory a large number of modern CPUs could work but it depends on Dell providing a bios update for your motherboard. Seems like trouble.
You can try to find out the details but a new video card should give that computer quite a boost so maybe just do that and see if you can get by without a new CPU.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Most games rely on the GPU more than the CPU and if the CPU is the limiting factor then your framerate shouldn't be terrible. There are game that would have problems with your CPU; Dragon Age, the GTA IV port and some others that I'm forgetting but I'm hoping most games should be fine.
Hmmm, just a bit of googling seems to imply that you have an Athlon 64 X2 which is a dual core CPU. I think that most games should do fine.
You might want to check out this review of the ATI 5570. It seems that it can run L4D2 at 1680x1050 with Max settings. You'll probably be surprised what even a not very powerful card can do at your resolution. Games like Crysis will be a different story obviously.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
check the graph sections.
The 5770 is decidely more powerful than the 9600gt.
plus, if you ever want to pick up another monitor, eyefinity. lawl.
edit: OH 5570. not 5770. please, I am just in full retard mode today. disregard me.
edit edit: the 5570 is low power low profile like you need, where as the 9600gt is a full sized beasty, your tiny case and overworked cpu will thank you for the heat reduction, assuming performance is similair.
Considering it's a DX11 piece, it damn well ought to.
I was going to download the driver from this place but it doesn't look.... 'healthy'. I'm not sure if I want to risk something like this.
Well that's just to upgrade your processor. AFAIK, a new video card should work just fine. I'd just go with that.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Bonus as it not only uses less power than the X1300pro already in here, it also generates less heat. Swish!
Heh, well this is pretty obvious unless your video card is going to break a few fundamental laws of physics.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)